With its trucks always turned out to a high standard, the fleet of DA Campbell Transport of Bathurst is one of the most easily recognised as they make their way across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and into South Australia.
The Campbell name is also easy to spot at any truck show or gathering of people where trucks are a passion, with the merchandise range featuring the company’s trucks being a popular choice of many.
Deb Campbell has been tasked with the job of taking the company’s merchandise ‘on the road’ and as such makes her way around a number of events throughout the year with clothing and accessories for truck fans to purchase.
On a busy weekend in April this year, Deb and her husband had set up their marquee at the Rutherglen Rumble event, having attended the Colac Truck show in southern Victoria the day before.
With the tables stacked up with a variety of Campbell Transport-branded product, trade was steady as she took a few minutes to chat to Big Rigs.
“Dean Campbell started out with one truck working as an owner-driver, and especially over the last couple of years people have really started to follow the trucks as the company has grown and our merchandise supports that.
“We kicked off with the t-shirts and hoodies, now we have the trucker hats and the footy shorts, they are really popular with the younger kids…and some of the older ones as well – and of course we have to have the stubby holders!” she said.
With Dean Campbell’s first truck, a Kenworth SAR, the first to feature on a t-shirt, the clothing range now features a number of the Campbell trucks including the iconic black ‘Boogie Nights’ T909.
“We started off with a shirt for the SAR and it just from there to the range we have today – he works with an artist and does all the designs himself, on a black shirt the fleet colours come out really well.
“All of the shirts have a story to tell, the SAR ‘Believe and Succeed’ was named by his grandmother, and the ANZAC trailers are in remembrance of his grandfather who went to war, so they all have a name and a meaning,” she explained.
“Across our range we now have about seven different designs, and we have just released a new one. ‘Moonlit Digger’ is our newest truck, which is another Defence Force tribute one. It’s pretty much when a new truck arrives we start planning the shirt.”
Deb and her husband have clocked up plenty of miles over the last couple of years, covering events such as agricultural shows around the local Bathurst and Orange area through to the larger gatherings which are truck focused.
“We go to all the truck shows – obviously Dean doesn’t have the time, it takes a fair bit of time and mileage to get to them, so we do that on his behalf.
“He will get a couple of the trucks such as Boogie Nights to a few of the shows, it is hard to get them off the road to a show, but they do get to a few. We will be at Casino in August and also at Castlemaine later in the year and of course back home for the Dane Ballinger Memorial show which Dean ran with Dane Ballinger.”
The company also has an online store along with the over-the counter sales and as such the Campbell name is now being seen on people’s back far and wide.
Having launched a new division to the business in July hauling logs from Bathurst to Tumut, and putting some new B-Double combinations on the road, Deb reckoned that they would have to look at doing a logging-themed shirt to add to the collection.
For now, she will just load up her car and head off to the next event.
“There wasn’t ever really a plan, it just evolved into this.
“We have been doing shows for a fair while now, we did one or two and it went from there. It’s involved lots of miles; we just about need to run a logbook,” she said with a smile.
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